MIPTV: Publicis Chief Maurice Levy And The Billion-Dollar Selfie

Want to know who really was behind that Oscar selfie that tellingly was snapped on a Samsung phone? And the one last week that featured President Obama and baseball star David Ortiz? Maurice Levy, Chairman and CEO of France’s ad/PR giant Publicis Groupe, spilled the beans during his keynote interview today at Mip-TV in Cannes (watch a clip below). And he backed it up with some serious numbers. “The earned media — all the buzz which has been done around the Oscar [selfie] — represents roughly a value between $800 million to $1 billion because it has been all over the world,” Levy said. The theme of his sit-down with journalist and media commentator Kate Bulkley was “The Future of Content Is Digital.” Here’s the clip:

3 Comments

jvh007 • on Apr 8, 2014 5:25 pm

…a value between $800 million to $1 Billion????? DREAM ON!!

Paul • on Apr 8, 2014 5:25 pm

It’s an exaggeration, but maybe less than you think. Marketers put a value on impressions, and that picture/tweet had more than 3 *billion* twitter impressions alone, not to mention free space on the blogosphere, FB, and television. An equivalent cost can be calculated for all that placement…and while I doubt it’s $1B, it’s probably at least in the low hundreds of millions.

Kate scoot • on Apr 8, 2014 5:25 pm

This moron is blowing smoke up everybody’s arse! The selfie was a creation from a woman comedy writer that was part of Ellen’s team! The Samsung was incidental you blowhard!